We call for greater protection of green spaces in cities

We have welcomed the Welsh Conservative Party’s consultation paper Liveable Cities and its support for parks and green spaces and sustainable transport in cities.

In responding, the society has made some new proposals.

Bute Park, Cardiff

While it welcomes the paper’s recommendation that local authorities should be required to submit plans that highlight land which can be made into green spaces, it believes the policy should go further. The society calls for a legal duty on local authorities to manage and care for the parks and green spaces in their areas.

It also proposes that landowners should be urged voluntarily to dedicate land as town or village green(2), which protects it from development and gives local people a right of recreation there. Such a process can also be used to create permanent green space in mitigation for development.

We believe that local authorities and developers should make far greater use of the opportunity provided by dedication of town and village greens to provide and protect vital green spaces in urban areas.’